Frame for drying netted fabrics



rr -n STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY DEWAELE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 225,212, dated March 9, 1880.

Application filed June 23, 1879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY DEWAELE, of the city of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania,haveinvented a Frame forDryin g Netted Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

Of machines for drying fabrics of various sorts many have been invented and are in use, but none of them are applicable to netting, for the reason that the cords of the net run diagonally across the fabric; and while these machines are well adapted to fabrics whose threads run in the line of the piece and at right angles across it, they fail to hold netting so that all its meshes will be square, but are apt to dry it so that the meshes of some parts are drawn out of shape.

The frame which I have devised can be adapted to any width of fabric, can be easily set up anywhere, is inexpensive in its construction, and dries netting so that all the meshes are square and smooth.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a side View of the frame, partly in plan and partly in section. Fig. 2 represents a top view and Fig. 3 represents an end view, partly in section.

The frame consists of two sides held at a proper distance apart by cross-beams A A, which are adjustable to suit the width of the fabrics to be dried.

In frames for drying cloth, horizontal side bars furnished with tenter-hooks have been made movable, so that after the cloth was hooked on it could be drawn tight, the bars being furnished with ratchets or similar devices for that purpose.

I do not use such devices, because it is notnecessary to stretch the netting after it is hooked on, and because such a construction involves greater and unnecessary expense.

Machines for drying cloth by passing it over rollers, heated or otherwise, have been so made that they could be widened or narrowed to suit the width of the cloth to be so dried; but netting cannot be properly dried upon such machines, because the meshes will be drawn out of shape.

I have found it necessary, in order to secure the proper and square shape of the mesh, that the fabric should be suspended vertically in the frame, and should be stretched sidewise by being attached to hooks which are in vertical lines, and, in order to use the same frame with fabrics of different Widths, th at the cross-beams should be capable of attachment to the sides of the frame at diiferent points of their length.

In the construction of the parts of my frame I so form the sides and the cross-beams that the frame is set up and fastened at the proper Width to suit the fabric to be dried before the netting is attached to it, the flexible nature of the netting giving it sufficient play to enable it to be easily attached to the hooks and afterward drawn tight. This may be done by any of the various simple and well -kuown devices by which one object is made movable upon another, and when brought to the position desired is fastened there-such asaclamp, a wedge, or a set-screw.

In the form shown in the drawings the cross-beams are fastened to the sides by bolts passing through the beams, and in the beams are several holes, as shown in the drawings, by the use of which difi'erent holes for the bolts the width of the frame can be adjusted to suit the fabric to be attached to it. Each of these sides consists of two posts, B B, and two longitudinal beams, O 0, one at the top, the other near the bottom, extending from the one to the other of which beams are vertical bars D D, furnished with tenter-hooks, preferably on both edges.

In the beams are holes E E for the admis sion of cross-bars F F, properly placed in relation to the vertical bars. I have generally placed them in the lower beams between the vertical bars, and in the upper beams immediately over the bars; but this position might be reversed or otherwise modified, and instead of the holes in the upper beam there may be notches to receive the cross-bars, as l have sometimes made them.

The cross-bars are of a proper length to extend across the frame and fit into the opposite holes in the beams.

In the operation of drying netting upon this frame, a cross-bar is inserted in thcopposite holes of the upper beams at one end of the frame, and the end of the piece of petting, which has been properly starched or sized, is passed over it. The sides of the nettingare now hooked on the tenter-hooks on the sides of the two vertical bars nearest that end of the frame, and the end of the netting on hooks in the cross-beam or in a cross-bar. The netting is now drawn up over the cross-bar so that it is smooth and the meshes are square, and it is then hooked on the renter-hooks in the other side of the vertical bar until the bottom of it is reached. A cross-bar is then inserted in the opposite holes in the lower beams, and the netting is drawn under it smooth and square. Across-bar is then in serted in the next two holes in the upper beams under the netting, and the netting is hooked on the tenter-hooks on the vertical bar and drawn smooth and square over the cross-bar, and so on. The whole of the netting is thus stretched smooth and square in such manner that it occupies a very small space and permits a free circulation of air.

In lieu of the vertical bars in the sides of the frame there may be a lattice-work carrying the hooks in the proper position, or the side may be lined with solid boards with the hooks inserted in them; but the ventilation will not be so good.

The cross-bars may be provided with tenterhooks, to which the netting may be fastened;

but I have found it to be more convenient and to produce a better finish, and with less liability to tear the netting, to pass it over and under the cross-bars, as described.

I claim as my invention,-

1. A frame for drying fabrics, the sides of which are furnished with the series of bars D, provided with tenter-hooks, and holes E, or their equivalent, for the bars F, substantially as specified.

2. The combination, with the sides of a frame having vertical bars provided with tenter-hooks and the bars F, of the cross beams A, provided With fastenings by which the frame can be widened or narrowed, movable at pleasure, but rigid-When attached, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with the sides and cross-beams of a frame, substantially as described, of the bars D, provided with tenterhooks, and the cross-bars F, substantially as specified.

H. DEWVAELE,

itnesses:

G. MORGAN ELDRIDGE, SAML. P. HANSON. 

